Padfoot and Moony
by ROSSELLA1
Summary: A series of episodes in the lives of two of our favorite Marauders.
1. The Start

The Start

By ROSSELLA1

Note: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters.

Sirius has only been at Hogwarts a week when it comes. Just long enough to make a new friend and learn that it's not normal for one's parents to lock their children in the family dungeon for saying muggles shouldn't be tortured. He's started to realize that he'd never truly felt happy before. And then it comes. He's sitting next to James in the Great Hall, trying to decide between eggs and pancakes when the post comes. Sirius doesn't expect any mail. His parents spend a good portion of their time pretending Sirius doesn't exist and the rest of the time asking him why he can't be more like Regulus. But when he looks up Sirius sees their family owl, Apus, flying towards him. Still, Sirius doesn't feel a sense of foreboding. Until the red envelope is dropped on his plate.

"Woah," James says, turning to him, eyes wide, "What did you do?"

Sirius has no idea. He's sure he didn't leave any Zonko's products lying where his mother or father could accidently set them off, and he'd been extra careful not to fight with Regulus in the week leading up to his departure, as he knew he wouldn't see his brother for quite some time. He grabs for the envelope, hoping he has time to make it out of the Great Hall before it goes off, but the Howler has already begun to steam. He's just rising when it bursts open and his mother's voice fills the room.

SIRIUS ORION BLACK!

YOUR FATHER AND I HAVE HEARD ABOUT YOUR RECENT DISGRACE! THE ONLY GRYFFINDOR IN CENTURIES! YOU ARE TO GO DIRECTLY TO THE HEADMASTER AND DEMAND TO BE RESORTED! IT IS SHAMEFUL THAT-

But Sirius is already running from the Hall. He can hear James call out for him and his mother's voice still demanding that Sirius "rectify" the situation, but he ignores both of them, trying to make it out of the Great Hall before she finishes and he needs to hear the other students' laughter.

He heads for the library because he knows he's least likely to run into other students and because James would never think to look for him here. He doesn't want to talk to his friend. Not now. SIrius ignores the librarian's cry of admonishment and keeps running until he's deeper into the library than he's ever been before. He ducks into an alcove and flings himself onto the couch, sobbing into the cushions.

It's not fair! He hasn't done anything wrong. He's just been sorted into Gryffindor instead of Slytherin! He can hardly help that. All he'd wanted when he got to Hogwarts was to distance himself from his family and make new friends. Now he doubts if-

"Er...are you okay?"

Sirius jerks up, looking wildly around the alcove. In the corner, perched on an overstuffed armchair, sits a boy about his age. "What are you doing here? Thought it would be funny to follow me?" Sirius snaps, rubbing the tears from his eyes.

"No!" The boy, Sirius now recognizes him as a first year Gryffindor named Remus Lupin, looks shocked. "I...I was just reading before breakfast and you...I can leave if you want..."

"N-no. No that's...that's a-alright." Sirius replies quickly, now feeling slightly calmer. Clearly the boy has no idea what Sirius is talking about; he couldn't have heard the Howler. Of course what he must think of Sirius, running in here and throwing himself on the couch, crying like a little girl..."I'm sorry. I just...I'll go." Cheeks flushed, Sirius rises and turns to leave.

"Are you..." There's a cracking sound behind him, and Sirius glances back to see that Remus has taken a slab of chocolate out and his offering him a piece. "When I feel upset, chocolate always makes me feel better." Remus offers him a weak smile.

Sirius hesitates, and then takes the candy. "Thank you." And then he hurries from alcove, looking for another, more abandoned area to compose himself in.

…..

It's over an hour later when Sirius makes his way back to the Gryffindor Common room. He's missed Charms and is about to be late for Potions. He grabs his bag and makes a mad dash for the dungeon, just barely dropping into a seat next to James before class starts.

"Sirius!" James looks relieved. "I looked everywhere for you! Are you-"

"I'm fine." Sirius says gruffly. "No big deal. Probably get loads more Howlers before the year's over."

James opens his mouth, but Slughorn clears his throat. "Everybody take a seat! Take a seat! Today we will be making a simple cure for boils. Now, I want you to split into pairs or groups of three and then we can begin our first step."

Sirius glances up and meets James' eyes, silently agreeing that they'll work together. Further down the row, Sirius can see the boy from the library, Remus, sitting still, glancing nervously around as if he wants to ask someone to work with him but can't quite get up the nerve to do so.

"Come on." Sirius mutters, elbowing James. He gets up and walks over, dropping into a seat next to the boy. "Remus, right?"

"Yeah..." Lupin sounds tentative, as if he's unsure why Sirius and James have come to sit with him.

"I'm Sirius, and this is James. Wanna work with us?"

"Sure!"

The boy looks way too excited at the prospect and Sirius wonders if he has any friends yet. Remus had seemed nice enough in the library. And while he starts to talk about the ingredients of the potion in a way that makes Sirius think the boy might be a bit of a teacher's pet, Lupin doesn't mention that he'd seen Sirius earlier. Perhaps, Sirius thinks, he and James could be Remus' friends.


	2. Company

Company

By ROSSELLA1

Note: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters.

The first full moon after Remus discovers that Sirius is innocent, a shaggy black dog turns up on Lupin's doorstep. Their conversation is awkward at first. Neither one knows how to relate to the other now that James is gone and Peter has betrayed them and both Lupin and Sirius had thought the other a traitor. Remus warns Sirius that staying with him throughout the transformation will be dangerous. Dumbledore still has Snape send him the wolfsbane potion every month, but it has been a long time since Remus has had any company during a full moon. He can't predict how he will react once he has transformed. But Sirius refuses to leave and each night of the full moon ends with the dog and the wolf curled up together on the cellar floor.

Sirius doesn't stay long after the full moon ends. He can't stay in one place for too long. To do so, would be to risk both Sirius's liberty and Remus's safety. But the next month, just a few days before the full moon, Sirius returns. It becomes a routine, then. Remus has no idea how, no matter how many times he moves, Sirius always finds him. Remus needs to send any message he has for Sirius through Dumbledore, and he hasn't been able to put too much information in them, just in case the Ministry is suspicious of him. But without fail, Sirius always turns up a few days before each full moon and leaves a few days after it ends.


	3. Close

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p class="Paragraph SCXW133727013" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; color: #000000; text-indent: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word; -ms-user-select: text; -ms-touch-select: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent;"span style="text-decoration: underline;"span class="TextRun SCXW133727013" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri,Calibri_MSFontService,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px; line-height: 19.42px; -ms-touch-select: none; -ms-user-select: text; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW133727013" style="background-color: transparent; -ms-touch-select: none; -ms-user-select: text; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"By ROSSELLA1/span/span/span/p  
p class="Paragraph SCXW133727013" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; color: #000000; text-indent: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word; -ms-user-select: text; -ms-touch-select: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCXW133727013" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri,Calibri_MSFontService,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px; line-height: 19.42px; -ms-touch-select: none; -ms-user-select: text; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW133727013" style="background-color: transparent; -ms-touch-select: none; -ms-user-select: text; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Note: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters./span/span/p  
p class="Paragraph SCXW133727013" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; -ms-touch-select: none; -ms-user-select: text; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; word-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"span class="TextRun SCXW133727013" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri,Calibri_MSFontService,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px; line-height: 19.42px; -ms-touch-select: none; -ms-user-select: text; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW133727013" style="background-color: transparent; -ms-touch-select: none; -ms-user-select: text; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"Remus and Sirius had never been close. Or, they had been, but not as close as Sirius and James had been. Sirius and James had been best friends before they'd befriended Remus and, even after the Marauders had been friends for years, there was a very clear dynamic. James and Sirius were the leaders of their group. Their bond was unbreakable and neither one seemed fully complete without the other. Then, came Remus, and then Peter. All four of them were friends and it would have been unfair to say that James or Sirius didn't care for their /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW133727013" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri,Calibri_MSFontService,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px; line-height: 19.42px; -ms-touch-select: none; -ms-user-select: text; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW133727013" style="background-color: transparent; -ms-touch-select: none; -ms-user-select: text; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"other/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW133727013" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri,Calibri_MSFontService,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px; line-height: 19.42px; -ms-touch-select: none; -ms-user-select: text; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW133727013" style="background-color: transparent; -ms-touch-select: none; -ms-user-select: text; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" friends. Both would have withstood torture and death for Remus and Peter. But...well, James and Sirius were /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW133727013" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri,Calibri_MSFontService,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.42px; -ms-touch-select: none; -ms-user-select: text; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW133727013" style="background-color: transparent; -ms-touch-select: none; -ms-user-select: text; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"best/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW133727013" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri,Calibri_MSFontService,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; line-height: 19.42px; -ms-touch-select: none; -ms-user-select: text; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW133727013" style="background-color: transparent; -ms-touch-select: none; -ms-user-select: text; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" friends, while Remus and Peter were merely their friends. Remus had always understood this without it being said. Sometimes he'd wished he'd had a best friend of his own, but mostly he had just been /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW133727013" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri,Calibri_MSFontService,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px; font-style: normal; line-height: 19.42px; -ms-touch-select: none; -ms-user-select: text; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW133727013" style="background-color: transparent; -ms-touch-select: none; -ms-user-select: text; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"thankful that he had had any friends at all. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW133727013" style="font-family: Calibri,Calibri_MSFontService,Sans-Serif; font-size: 14.66px; line-height: 19.42px; -ms-touch-select: none; -ms-user-select: text; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p  
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